New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-16


that has nouIishment good drink like soup or
cOhee-no. They stand many hours and are FAINT
ana weak SO l say there must be good c0nec
for them and tell them: Girls. Will buv BIG
urn and there shall be coffee and milk, and Tor
two cents you can have a big cup so sweet as you
will. OF II you like better il shall be hot soup.
Above in q room was swiss that knew good soup
and that would. IL 1 pay her little, buy all thai
is wanted and make biz pot SO that each could
have bowl. This also l weuld have them pay
for three cents a bowl, and they like this best,
and il is done for three weeks. They 20 up thele
and have fun bowls. and have long table made
before a bench where sometimes they rest, with
l-cloth and here they eat and are comfortable
Three days soup. three days not coffee, and have
lace where tho men can heat what is in their
pals
but they do such things They pick cut
vegetable from soup and throw on the floor. They
pour away coffee. They make the place like
home Of animals. and when 4 say, Girls. / want
much that all should be clean and nice, and that
you waste they laugh again / find that
difficult. for what answer can be made to laugh
I go on, but they break bowls and insult the
Swiss that make the soup and tell her buy dog
meat and SUCH and she say she win no more of
it. Then / eau the doctor again and Say to them:
Listen while he tells you what is good to eat
They were not all SO fools, but the fool ones rule,
and they listen. hut they laugh always. That is
American. To laugh and think everything joke
and not see what earnest must be for any good
living. 4 give the coffee urn TO the best girl and
tell her to have care OF it, but do what we VII
they think somehow am silly, and like best to
eat their pie and then talk. A small pie st the
corner is three cents and they buy one-some-
times two-and 1t Is sweet and fills and they
content 1t is only men that think. that viii
change habit. / find for the worker always till
thought begins they are conservative and an ex-
pertinent change is distress to them. So say.
Let them do rs they win Air is here and that
they cannot stop, but for food will do no more
these all were small things, and as / went
1 said as in the beginning that for those who did
the same work must be the same wage. My men
had always $40 and sometimes 312 or SIS q week,
but the best woman had $40 and she had worked
five years and knew all 1t is law, mwritten
but still law. that women shall not have what
men earn, and when say one is good rs another,
the brother OF the woman I make equal with him
said first this should never be. and when said.
II must he talk to all the men ut noon. and be
fore the looms begin again they come and tell me
that il do so they will work no more. i talk
to them all: This is q country where men boast
always that woman has much honor but / sec not
that she has justice than where there is less
all the hours and as well as thcy-ycs many times
better-and then threaten strike If they are paid
the samei' But II was all no good. For that
time l must yield. because had much work that
was promised but said: For do you
will. With January that Is but month away it
shall be as / will
well. have tried. Many changes have been
made. much time lost. much money. call them
TO my house in the evening. talk with them and
try to teach them Justice and some willing but
most not New men spoil my work, and lose
much profit and take the old ones again. But
this, too. is q small thing. My own mind goes on
and see that they should share with me. read
of cooperation and to me IL is truer than profit
sharing. have seventy men and girls at work. |
l say they must understand this business win
try to teach them. Two evenings a week l meet |
them all and talk and listen TO them. One two
feel 1t plain For most they say, Old b wants
TO get q rise out OF us somehow Al last sec
that they too foolish To underrt and co-opera
ton, but IL may be they will let profit sharing bo
a step Over and over. many times over and over |
l tell II all and In the end some agree, and for q
year II does well. But the next year was bad |
Silk Was high and my ribbons honest ribbons and |
profit small and when they how small. they |
cried that they were cheated and that kept ali
for myself. l read them the books said. Here. |
you may see with your eyes. This year make not |
enough to live Ii there were not other years In |
which l saved. am almost failed The business |
might stop, but win 90 on for our names sake !
All dodge they said. No words plain |
enough to Inalse them know. They even called |
me cheat and liar there in the place where had
tried to work for them.
And so share profits no more. i give large
wage. l never cut down, do the market what il
will But some things are plain. 1t is not alone
oppression and greed from above that do what you
call grind the worker. No, am not alone. There
men like me with wish for humanity and
wiser than l. and alike they not heard when
they speak alike their wish is naught and their
effort vain. II is ignorance that rules. There is
KNOWLEDGE no understanding. In my trade
and in all trades | know 1t is the same. man
will not believe fact. and lac will believe that 10
cheat is all over him wish Even my
workers that for me- few of them. they
laugh no more 10 my face, but they say: Oh. he
has notions, that man! lie viii never get very
rich. he has many notions They listen and
they think little. One man said yesterday If
his had been put in my head when was a grow
ing lad 1t would have Strengthened many a thing
Why amt we taught?' And / said to him
Jacob, teachers not taught. There Is only
one here, one there. that thinks what only 1t is
we'll to learn-iustice for all the world who
would do justice am made TO wait. but the ain is
with you. not with me-
$50 to-day / wait for such time as wisdom may
como. Ny son is one with me IN this lie has a
plan and soon he viii try, and where l failed his
more knowledge may do better But for Inc. I
think that this generation must suffer much and
in pain and want learn it may be what Is life
tn. LpaU mt md III fstp